The present exemplary embodiments pertain to a network environment and, more particularly pertain to a method, apparatus and computer program product for optimizing the traffic that flows through the network environment. In one preferred environment, the network environment may be a cloud environment.
Cloud computing is a kind of Internet-based computing, where shared resources, data and information are provided to computers and other devices on-demand. Cloud computing and storage solutions provide users and enterprises with various capabilities to store and process their data in third-party data centers.
Cloud computing is a model for enabling ubiquitous, convenient, on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources (e.g., networks, servers, storage, applications and services) that can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal management effort.
Cloud computing may allow companies to avoid upfront infrastructure costs, and focus on projects that differentiate their businesses instead of on infrastructure. Cloud computing may also allow companies to get their applications up and running faster, with improved manageability and less maintenance, and further may allow the companies to more rapidly adjust resources to meet fluctuating and unpredictable business demand.
The present availability of high-capacity networks, low-cost computers and storage devices as well as the widespread adoption of hardware virtualization has led to a growth in cloud computing. Companies can scale up as computing needs increase and then scale down again as demands decrease.
Cloud computing is increasingly recognized as a cost effective means of delivering information technology services through a virtual platform rather than hosting and operating the resources locally. Modern clouds enable system administrators to build highly customized virtual machines to meet a huge variety of end user requirements.